TV Asahi's three-hour television special Video Game General Election, which surveyed 50,000 people throughout Japan about their favorite video games, has declared The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to be the greatest video game of all time.
The 2017 adventure game, released on both the Wii U and as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch, is widely beloved for how it reinvented and refreshed the tried-and-true Legend of Zelda formula with its immersive open world gameplay, fresh crafting dynamics, painterly art style and emotional storyline. The game takes place 100 years after the current incarnations of Zelda and Link failed to stop the Great Calamity. Reawakening in this post-apocalyptic world without his memories, Link now has to assemble a team of new Champions of Hyrule to help him defeat Ganon, who is still sealed in Hyrule Castle with Zelda but gaining power.
The Japanese fan consensus that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the greatest video game of all time isn't too far off from how gamers have responded to the game around the world. The Switch edition of Breath of the Wild is the 14th highest-rated game on Metacritic, with a critics' score of 97, while the Wii U edition is the 26th highest-rated with a score of 96. Also according to Metacritic, 18 critics ranked it as the best video game of the 2010s, far more than any other game from that decade.
Breath of the Wild is one of five Legend of Zelda games to make the Video Game General Election top 100. The Nintnedo 64 release Ocarina of Time, widely considered the consensus "best" of the series before Breath of the Wild took that title, ranks at 18 on the list. The NES original Legend of Zelda ranks at 52, while the N64's Majora's Mask is at 80 and the Wii's Skyward Sword at 88. The list has a heavy lean towards Switch releases, with four of the top 10 games (Breath of the Wild at 1, Animal Crossing: New Horizons at 4, Splatoon 2 at 5 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at 7) having made their debuts on Nintendo's latest best-selling console.
The full rankings from the Video Game General Election poll can be read at Kotaku.
A sequel to Breath of the Wild is currently in the works with a planned release on the Switch in 2022.
Source: Kotaku